I’m sure you know of the game ‘Chinese Whispers’ (aka telephone, grapevine, or gossip, depending on where you are in the world). A line of players whisper a message from person to person, and the last in line announces the message to the whole group. Given the rules don’t allow players to repeat the message (and it’s funnier when someone adds in a random line to throw the game off), errors can accumulate in the message so that when the final statement is announced, it is significantly different to what person number one said. Naturally this process affords the phrase ‘Chinese Whispers’ to be used as a metaphor for cumulative errors in communication.
As a market research consultant, I have experienced this phenomenon on a number of occasions. Some of the best pieces of research I’ve ever seen, and the ones that made me want to become a researcher have been misinterpreted or executed in a way that lost the richness of the insight, eventually delivering poor results.
It’s easy to see how this happens. In a research agency, you undertake the research, package it up nicely with all the bells and whistles and then present it to the client to do what they will with it. In the ideal world the research agency stays on board in an advisory capacity to make sure the message isn’t lost in translation, however with a number of other agencies and agendas often involved, this can be difficult.
Yet it is so important that the insight is entrenched throughout the entire process, because ultimately the success of research is determined by the outcome.
Hence there are awards for best application of an insight, for when a piece of research leads to significant results. Considering ‘application’ is one of the key functions of a media communications agency, identifying insights under the same roof as where the decisions are made on what to do with them is really exciting.
Having a research department within a media communications agency can be as effective as an Olympic relay team (just confirmed with a teammate that they do actually have relays in the Olympics): identifying great insights that help steer strategic direction that inform communications planning that lead to optimal channel selection and execution.
Though since I’ve been in the media world, I've noticed that there are some blockages towards conducting bespoke research in-house, despite the universal knowledge that insights are fundamental to media strategy. Cost is a big one (millions of dollars on ad spend, who can afford a measly research project?), but there also seems to be a perception that exists among clients that research agencies are more competent for the bigger projects despite the benefits of combining research and media capabilities. Unfortunately these issues can translate into demand for ‘quick and dirty’ research projects and hypothesised insights which further feed the stereotype of media research departments. For example, when I left the research world a colleague in my former company joked about the quality of media research and laughed I’d become an expert on Survey Monkey. If I wanted the opinions of my friends and colleagues I’d throw a status update on Facebook and see how many ‘likes’ I got.
Nonetheless I think an even bigger challenge is in demonstrating the value to clients in conducting research, and how the insights enhance ideas, and identify future opportunities. With a number of successful brands publicly announcing they don’t conduct research, it seems there is a belief that creativity can’t be derived purely from what a consumer thinks they need because it would only explore a realm that already exists, and therefore one with boundaries. This is precisely what Henry Ford meant in his famous quote: “If I’d have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me ‘a faster horse.’” And from an innovation point of view I agree with this; how do you create new and innovative products if you’re only exploring what a consumer currently knows, rather than your potential to create?
But from a research standpoint, we wouldn’t be very good at our jobs if we just relayed exactly what consumers said they wanted now would we? Brilliant research articulates what consumers cannot. It may not predict the success of the next big gadget that no one knows about yet – but it can sure help you understand the needs, behaviours and attitudes of your consumers so you know how to speak to them. Isn’t that what communication is all about? Undertaking the whole process within the same team or business means less gets lost in translation, and more becomes of the research that clients invest in.
Steph Karayannis
MediaCom